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Summary
On episode 350 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Gillian Goerzen, a health and fitness coach with a degree in kinesiology and more than 20 years of coaching experience whose personalized strategies have helped hundreds of clients redefine what fitness means to them, to talk about her book The Elephant in the Gym.
Gillian opens with the two wolves story: rather than fighting the negative voice in your head, feed the one you want to win by noticing what you’re already doing right. She then explains the health zone, a range between non-negotiable minimums and realistic optimal habits that replaces all-or-nothing goals, so missing one workout doesn’t spiral into abandoning the whole plan.
The conversation also covers her 10 Super You principles and the idea of choosing your hard: the discomfort of staying stuck versus the discomfort of doing the work, and finding the deeper why, beyond how you look, that gets you out of bed to do it.
Links
- https://elephantinthegym.com
- https://superu.ca
Key Takeaways
- Gym intimidation is mostly a story in your own head. Gillian says most people at the gym notice a newcomer and think “good for them,” not the judgment beginners imagine. Finding a facility whose culture and philosophy fit you, the “everybody knows your name” feeling, matters more than pushing through fear at the wrong gym.
- Feed the wolf you want to win. In the two wolves story, a grandfather explains that the wolf that wins the battle inside him is the one he feeds. Applied to health, that means building momentum by noticing and reinforcing what you’re already doing well, rather than only focusing on where you’re falling short.
- The health zone replaces all-or-nothing goals with a range. Instead of a rigid target like “gym five days a week,” Gillian has clients set a range, for example moving two to four days a week for at least 15 minutes, bounded by non-negotiable minimums and realistic optimal habits, so any point in that range still counts as success.
- Something is always better than nothing. A 10-minute walk beats no walk, two servings of vegetables beat none, and Gillian says these small wins, done consistently, are what actually compound into results over time.
- The 10 Super You principles run from mindset to action. They include being yourself rather than comparing to others, embracing your humanity and imperfection, showing up and trusting the process, exploring the actual science while treating application as an art, reclaiming your relationship with food, valuing sleep as the unsung hero of health, and owning your health as uniquely yours.
- Choose your hard. Staying uncomfortable in your body, unable to do the things you want to do, is hard. So is doing the work to change it. Gillian says the way through is recognizing both paths are hard and deciding which one is worth it.
- Connect to a deeper why beyond appearance. Gillian finds that motivation tied to being a role model for your kids or being able to get on the floor and play with your grandkids is far more powerful and durable than motivation tied to fitting into a certain outfit.
- Failure is refusing to get back up. When you fall off a plan, Gillian says to look at it like chalk marks on a slate rather than wiping it clean: learn what didn’t work, adjust, and try again instead of treating one setback as total failure.
- Gillian’s three strategies to get and stay well: before starting anything, ask whether you’d be willing to do it for the rest of your life; whatever you choose, do it consistently, since there’s no magic pill or program; and don’t judge yourself as a failure when you fall off track, just get back up and find a better approach.
“Failure isn’t falling. Failure is choosing not to get back up.”
Gillian Goerzen
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 362 – Get healthy and fit with commitment, strategy, habits, and tactics